Into the Woods is a new exhibition by British photographer Ellie Davies which showcases work from her new series Chalk Streams. The new series looks at one of the world’s most unique and rare ecosystems, 85% of which are found in the UK, and are under huge threat from numerous stressors including climate change and rising sea levels. These streams provide a unique ecosystem supporting a high biodiversity of wild creatures and have been likened to rainforests and coral reefs in their ecological importance.
The new work will be shown alongside prints from many of her earlier bodies of work created over the past 10 years in the forests and woodlands of the UK, which explore the complex interrelationships between the landscape and the individual.
Throughout her practice small acts of engagement respond to the landscape. Using the forest as her studio, fires or pools of light hint at a human presence, whilst starscapes taken by the Hubble Telescope reflect on a fundamental disconnection from nature.
‘Growing up in the New Forest in the south of England, I spent my childhood exploring and playing in the woods with my twin sister. My work considers my relationship with these places, and is my ongoing attempt to reconnect with the wilder landscapes of my youth and to discover if those remembered and imagined places can be found and captured again.’
Over thousands of years, UK forests have been shaped by human processes and represent the confluence of nature and culture, of natural landscape and human activity. Forests are potent symbols in folklore, fairy tale and myth, places of enchantment and magic as well as of danger and mystery. In recent cultural history they have come to be associated with psychological states relating to the unconscious. Against this cultural backdrop Davies’s ongoing work explores the fabricated nature of the landscape to create a hinterland between reality and fantasy. She encourages the viewer to re-evaluate the ways in which their relationship with the landscape is formed, and to what extent this is a product of cultural heritage or personal experience.
Ellie Davies (born 1976) graduated from the MA Photographic Degree Course at the London College of Communication (2008). Ellie has won numerous awards for her work, including the Magnum Photography Fine Art Award, the Aesthetica Art Prize People’s Choice Award, Lens Culture International Exposure Awards and the PX3 Paris Prix de la Photographie Award. Her work has featured in many international publications and was selected for American Photography 33, a curated annual selection of the best in contemporary photography. Her work is held in many private collections as well as The Royal Brompton & Harefield Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital Trust and Imperial Health Charity.
Into The Woods – Ellie Davies
27th July to 18th August 20123
Crane Kalman Gallery
178 Brompton Road
London SW1 1HQ.
www.cranekalmanbrighton.com
